While dozens of people appear in Croydon's courts each day, there are rarely crimes which rock the borough to its core.

While most offenders are not handed lengthy custodial sentences, some offences are so despicable that those who commit them may never see the outside of a prison cell for the rest of their lives.

As three Croydon's youths were jailed for life this week for their part in the killing of 15-year-old Jermaine Goupall in Thornton Heath, we have taken a look back at some of the very worst criminals to have struck in the borough.

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Crime news

Wife killer Jonathan Croxton

Jonathan Croxton was 25 when he strangled his wife, Joanna Croxton, before stashing her body in his attic.

Depraved Croxton had suspected his 21-year-old wife, who was raised in Croydon, had been having an affair for weeks before killing her in December 2005.

He claimed to have "flipped" during a row which broke out after he went through Joanna's phone and read text messages sent to her by a male colleague.

Johanna Croxton was murdered by husband Jonathan in December 2005

During his two-week trial at Lewes Crown Court, Croxton told the jury how he had throttled his wife before wrapping her body up in paddling pool sheeting, a duvet and a plastic Ikea bag before concealing it at his rented home in Hastings.

A jury rejected his plea to reduce his murder charge to manslaughter on the grounds hat his wife provoked him by having an affair. He was then handed a life sentence.

The couple's daughter, who was just 14 months old when Croxton was sentenced, has faced growing up with neither of her parents.

Mark Dixie

Mark Dixie

Probably one of Croydon's most infamous killers, Dixie is serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of South Croydon teenage model Sally Anne Bowman.

The 47-year-old, originally from Streatham, was given a life sentence, with a minimum tariff of 34 years, in 2008 for repeatedly stabbing and raping Sally Anne near her home in Blenheim Crescent in September 2005.

He admitted raping a woman in Wandle Road car park in 1987 – when he was just 16 years old - leaving her bound and gagged as he lit a fire in the car using his victim’s tampon, “delighting in her evident fear” according to a judge.

Dixie, now 47, also confessed to smashing a woman over the head with a chef's iron then dragging her to an isolated spot on Selsdon Road in 2002, where he indecently assaulted her.

Stuart Hazell

Stuart Hazell admitted killing Tia Sharp on the fifth day of his trial at the Old Bailey

The murder of 12-year-old Tia Sharpe was a crime which shocked New Addington and the nation.

Tia was reported missing on August 3, 2012, after Hazell said she went on a shopping trip to Croydon town centre.

As residents rallied together to help search for her, her grandmother's boyfriend, Stuart Hazell repeatedly told news outlets that he was "praying for the safe return of his baby".

During the alleged attack he was reported to have picked up a sharpened object and rammed it twice into 45-year-old Omar Benguit’s face at Wakefield Prison, in West Yorkshire, which meant Benguit, who was jailed for killing a student, needed urgent treatment in the prison’s medical wing.

The man who killed Scotty Kouebitra

Scotty Kouebitra, 22, was left to die in a pool of his own blood having been chased through a pitch-black park in Selhurst and stabbed with a screwdriver before being fatally stabbed with a knife in his neck and his heart.

He had been setting off fireworks with friends before a group of men in balaclavas and hoodies poured out of two cars with knives and baseball bats.

They attacked three men in total close to King George’s Field before stabbing Scotty to death on Gloucester Road on Halloween (October 31), 2016.

Jahliel Rose, 21, of Bensham Grove, Thornton Heath, was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 25 years for his part in the senseless murder of Scotty, for which the judge could see “no clear motive”.

Fellow attacker Jack Harvey, a 17-year-old from Wallington, was handed a 19-year jail term for his involvement in the killing.

The 'Shrublands Boys' who killed Andre Aderemi

Rodney Mukasa and Ali Zahawy were jailed for the murder of Andre Aderemi (Image: MET Police)

Andre Aderemi, 19, was hunted through the streets by a group of four men locked in a petty gang feud, before being surrounded, stabbed and left for dead on the Monks Hill estate in Selsdon in August 2016.

After an 11-week trial two of the teenager’s attackers Ali Zahawy, 20, and Rodney Mukasa, 19, were unanimously found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison on May 4, 2017.

Femi Cela, 19, also known as Fabio, was cleared of murder, but found guilty of manslaughter. Jamell Lonergan, 20, was also jailed for manslaughter.

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Another teenager, Daniel Luke, 18, of Donald Road, Croydon, was also charged with murder by joint enterprise with the other four, but was acquitted.

Jermaine's father, Stanley Goupall, who raised the youngster by himself, told the court: “My son has been stolen from me. It hurts so much that I never got to say goodbye to him, I had no idea he would not return home."